Lyft CFO Takes Crypto Plunge Into OpenSea

Lyft CFO Brian Roberts has been named the first finance main of OpenSea in a go that normally takes him from large tech to a crypto property startup.

OpenSea is the premier marketplace for NFTs (non-fungible tokens), a crypto phase that presents unique digital property these kinds of as sports memorabilia and art collections and has taken off lately, with particular person NFT sales exceeding far more than $1 million on a frequent basis.

Roberts joins the agency right after seven decades at trip-sharing app Lyft, which he aided manual as a result of an preliminary general public presenting. “My upcoming chapter will be used at OpenSea, aiding [co-founders] Devin Finzer, Alex Atallah, and crew form the potential of NFTs, web3, and the digital financial system,” he wrote in a tweet.

According to TechCrunch, Roberts’s go “is one more signal of how executives and engineers are migrating from the ‘traditional’ roster of large tech companies toward so-named web3 crypto startups.”

OpenSea, which was launched in 2017, raised $100 million at a $1.5 billion valuation in July. It reportedly has been fielding new investment presents that could improve its valuation around 6 instances to $ten billion or greater.

Investors involve Coinbase Ventures, Blockchain Capital, Mark Cuban, NBA star Kevin Durant, and actor Ashton Kutcher.

In August, the marketplace observed two million transactions, totaling $three.four billion in trading volume and tripling action from July. Company has cooled a little bit since then, but OpenSea even now observed virtually $1.9 billion in transaction volume in excess of the earlier 30 days across far more than 240,000 energetic crypto wallet addresses.

“NFTs have experienced a significantly sizzling 2021, and even though numerous foresaw the boom previously this calendar year remaining followed by a chilly winter season of inactivity, the choice asset course has ongoing to enjoy builds and busts of enthusiasm even though serving as a lightning rod of on the web discussion and speculation,” TechCrunch said.

Roberts joined Lyft in 2014 right after beforehand performing as an government at Walmart’s e-commerce unit, Evercore, and Microsoft. Lyft’s March 2019 IPO valued the company at $24.three billion.

Bryan Roberts, crypto-property, digital property, Lyft, NFTs, nonfungible tokens, OpenSea